Where does our food come from?

Yesterday I did the family food shopping. I generally tend to be a bit better at staying on budget then mom so it is a role I have assumed in the household. Although this time I did make the cardinal tri-fecta of mistakes ...being:

A. Not having breakfast
B. Working out in the hot sun on my first paddle-board lesson therefore making me...
C: Hungry at the grocery store.

Not always the best scenario - however with the heat and humidity of the day rising exponentially every 10 minutes as it does here in South Florida - I pressed on.

After wolfing down a banana to help with the leg cramps and ice coffee in hand I entered our local Publix. With it now being summer I find myself yearning for all things fruits and veggies these days so I headed to that section to go to town. One of my favorite things is photographing fresh produce in open air markets, there is just something so delicious about stacks and piles of fruits and veggies in season.



I do miss having multiple farmers markets options weekly as I was spoiled to have in California (note to my LA friends left behind - you have NO IDEA how lucky you are in terms of fresh produce options - keep those farmers markets thriving!)

Here in Fort Lauderdale, we have one tiny small farmers market down the street from our house on Sundays which mom diligently attends to pick from the limited available fresh produce, fish and homemade sauces. Mother always raised us to be conscious of what we put on our plates and in our bodies, and loves to tell the story of how she "picketed for lettuce" in the 1960's. I jest but really my sister and my love of fresh produce and support of "locally grown" stems just as much from her a-typical way of raising us in the 1980's which was fresh and home cooked meals when she came home from work every night of our lives -I never even saw a hot dog until a friends sleep over in grade school - as it does from 15 years living in the heavily eco-conscious environment of Southern California.

So back to Publix...here I am in the produce section and in the back of my mind are all the recent postings online, in blogs and on Facebook by some of my - mainly Venice, CA friends on the state of affairs in our food industry. Tips on how to shop organically and locally. The news on the big bad Monsanto/Whole Foods debacle of genetically engineered food . The terrible state of the fishing industry and contamination of our oceans, the demise of our honey bee population....the terrible list goes on and on and as the caffeine was buzzing through my nutrition depleted body I stood there in the tiny little overpriced organic section with a bunch of carrots in my hand and froze as the meaning of what I was reading sunk in.

Grown in California

CALIFORNIA!!

I mean it's no secret to my family, my friends here, hell anyone who talks to me that I miss a LOT about my adopted home state. I miss the fresh locally grown food the most - but I live in FLORIDA! Which means these scrumptious, organic carrots had to travel over 3,00o miles to be in my hand!!!
(OK for those of you who know I like to exaggerate a tad it is actually 2,715 miles by car....)
But STILL!

I then began wandering around the produce dept, past the one shelf of organic choices and seeing the signs.

Grown in Mexico, Chili, California, Costa Rica, FRANCE for god's sake! This is Florida, the sunshine state, I KNOW we have farms here, and the orange juice industry was STARTED here!! Interesting note - the ONLY orange juice in Florida that actually comes from Florida oranges is the brand Florida's Natural. Yep in the state made famous for Orange Juice there is only one locally sourced brand.

Last summer I visited my oldest and dearest friend in the New Jersey suburb of Pennington, near Princeton. She belongs to an organic farm co-op called Honey Brook Organic Farm and goes weekly to pick fresh in season produce like the beans above and the eggplants below to cook for her children and husband for dinner. How jealous am I of THAT? By the way dinner that evening was one of the best I had in a long while. There really is something to picking the food yourself that goes on your plate later in the day, and she is raising her triplets (yes 4 year old triplets) to be involved in what they eat from picking fresh produce from the farm, to planting their own vegetable garden! Yea Jen!

When they have surplus as they do with these amazing tomatoes, she makes sauces to freeze for the winter months so her family is still eating as much produce that is organically and locally sourced as possible, because even in the Garden State of New Jersey you run into the same problems in the grocery store of having to search for locally sourced, and in the winter having to make do with what they have if you want to eat a fruit or vegetable. In fact I am certain that anywhere you live - when you look at your choices for produce it is difficult to buy only locally sourced produce. Some states it is harder then others, but
Florida - for SHAME ON YOU!

So the dilemma I was faced while standing there was the following:
A. Continue to buy fruits and veggies for my family regardless of where they are grown and be a part of the problem.
or
B. Stop buying produce that isn't locally sourced and leave the department with nothing but a few large Florida Avocados (which are so strange looking and I am completely unsure how they taste or what to do with them) and Mangoes - which you can find all over Florida in backyards but are not organic as they are sprayed with pesticides. This option would obviously and severely limit my families fruit and veggie consumption.

Neither option is a win, so I chose organically while I could, and seethed with annoyance as I picked up other offerings and pondered if there is a 3rd option that benefits my families health as well as our environment. I have yet to find that option.

So with limited choices I do what I can for the health of my family and what we put into our bodies. I wait for 20 minutes at the deli for fresh sliced Boar's head meats and cheese that I can pick for its lower sodium content etc, as opposed to the quick pick pre-packaged varieties that are higher in sodium nitrates and preservatives. I choose organic produce, meat etc whenever possible - although it is a VERY expensive way to feed a family of 5 - as my sister and her boyfriend eat with us several days a week...well 6 if you count that sis is now eating for 2. We search for loally sourced fish that is healthy and not on the "bad fish" list, something that is getting increasingly difficult as the health of our ocean continues on it's downward spiral, but that's a rant for another day...
and Mother continues to go to the Farmers Market to support locally grown, even though the beautiful peaches she picked up last Sunday rotted by Monday.

Finally I continue to educate myself, even though the news out there gets scarier with every article, blog post and Facebook update you read.

Some of the best are blogs by friends of mine in California. Jason Stroh, chef, prior owner of Strohs Gourmet in Venice, CA and now Food blogger. Jason is into educating people as well as delighting them with healthful recipes with his blog FreeRangeTuna

Also my friend Elisha Reverby, owner of Elique Organics. While Elisha is an organic Skincare purveyor, she is also an advocate of the fate of the honey bee, and all things healthful and organic for our bodies inside and out. Check out her blog here.

Meanwhile - here in Florida I continue my quest of healthful and affordable goods to feed my family. All advice welcome!

Pamelas Products!

Pamelas All Purpose Gluten Free Flour! It may be pricey but it was worth it!

You really can not tell the difference and although I thought my cookies were not that pretty they tasted pretty damn good - according to the cookie tasting panel from last night!

And the baking adventures continue....with photos next time.

Next up - Grandmoms famous Manicotti recipe!

Son of a Nutcracker!

I just paid $16 for a bag of All Purpose Flour!!!! Now granted it is Gluten Free All Purpose flour and seems to be considered the best product out there that can mimic baked goods with Gluten in them - but REALLY? $16???

And I don't even BAKE that often!

Which is interesting because I have brought that up before and something began to dawn on me. Prior to Celiac - I almost never baked. Now I realize it was because I would just buy cookies or pies and bread of course - without much though other then the calorie and fat content (sometimes). Now if I want baked goods that don't taste like sawdust or even worse super sugary sawdust - I need to learn to make things.

So tonight's annual cookie exchange holiday party courtesy of the Ryan sisters - aka our very own Martha Stuart and her sister so of course they would be bakers - I needed to find a gluten free cookie recipe and I was not psyched about it.

Then a friend told me about Pamela's Gluten Free All Purpose Flour - and told me to make a regular cookie recipe and just substitute the flour. So that is what I am embarking upon at the moment - while I type this my hand candied pecans are baking in the oven, and I am trying to figure out where to put the borrowed behemoth of a Kitchen Aid (also courtesy of the Ryan sisters as they of course had 2 when they moved in together)

Why do I for see more baking in my future?

TOP CHEF

So last season a group of friends introduced me to Top chef on Bravo. It was during a dinner party - and the conversation went from taking bets on who the Top Chef would be - to plans for our own "cook-off" for the season finale party. It was a tough match as this a group of people who like food - and damn if everyone doesn't have some kind of cooking talent!

The theme was New Orleans (for the finale of the show) I pulled Vegetarian - which was REALLY difficult - but I did ok. Came in second under the 2 who tied for first - and people liked my dish.

So this year for season six - the host threw a curveball at us (just like in the show) and we had to prepare dishes inspired by music. A song, an artist, a genre etc...and bopnus points for a playlist that went along with your dish! We had a set pannel of judges (who were pretty amazing with the notes and critiques and personalities etc. We had our own "Price Waterhouse" counting team and we had a crew of chefs who were all bringing their A game - no doubt.

I pulled Fish as my protein and due to some serious family issues and having to move over the weekend I was feeling pretty stumped and un-inspired. But while working on editing some photos my iTunes was on and the Slumdog millionaire Soundtrack came on. Hmmmmm....it started to click. After many many years of going back and forth to England - i was introduced to Indian food properly and must admit I do enjoy it. However I have NEVER made any Indian food from scratch - so of course that's what I chose!

I found a recipe for Fish Pakura - a fried fish popular with street vendors and served with chutneys or tomato sauce. So I found a few recipes - really gambled by picking and choosing my favorite elements of them all AND chose corn flour to make it Gluten Free and decided to take a chance.

Made the tomato mint chutney, (bought the mango ginger one) got 3 huge beautiful fresh Cod fillets and headed on over. It was a bit stressful having NEVER made the dish and frankly have never done a lot of deep frying in the past either - but it turned out quite well and got a great response.

There was some REALLY great food, desserts and specialty cocktails - but when the points were added up - I pulled it out! TOP CHEF! Oh YEAH!

Waiting for a picture of my dish from a friend to post - and the hostess and I (she came in first last year and second this year) have a feeling we will be going head to head in the future - all in great fun.

So you think you can cook? Come see what we can do!

Thanksgiving

A time to give thanks.
A time to be with family and loved ones.
A time to eat yourself into a tryptophan coma with a side of sugar!

WOW - a holiday about family and food - what could be better? Sadly though sometimes in our lives, family brings added stress instead of joy, but that's just the way it is.

When I am wound up or stressed out I have a tendency to cook. It must be the Italian in me.....there is a trauma? Oh well I must feed everyone! It's just the way I am - I love cooking! Ask me to throw together a dinner party (including the HUGE thanksgiving meal) for 10 or more and I get all pumped up and psyched! Planning menus, making specialties, experimenting with new ideas/recipes and inventing some of my own! I LOVE it!

Ask me to bake and the stress freak emerges! I am not a baker. I mean it's not like what I bake is inedible by any means (most of the time) - but no one ever says "Oh Amanda is a great baker!" No. Not me.

So imagine the added stress I put upon myself when I decided to make my favorite - Pumpkin Pie - from scratch - by myself .......and....GLUTEN FREE! As I can no longer eat Gluten(one of the many "joys" this past year has sprung upon me) - this is a must, but baking Gluten free AND having it taste good is NOT easy and - well leave it to me to do my first run on a the biggest food fest day of the year.

I went to Yoga first yesterday, then poured myself a glass of wine and meticulously measured every little thing. (Its the scientific /can't experiment part of baking that terrifies me).

Then today it was roll out the pie dough (not pretty - and I had that dude from the Food Network - you know the know-it-all with the glasses who you actually learn interesting stuff from?) in the back of my head from a show I watched months ago stressing "not overworking" pie crust dough. Oh GREAT!



So after much angst that thoroughly entertained my neighbors - some who are used to me and my new neighbors who MUST think I am a total head case - they just came out of the oven - and I must say the smell was pretty heavenly - and they LOOK pretty good - but tonight at the desert and drinks soiree I am attending at Patio Culture - the truth will be told. Will they TASTE any good?

Well at least I know by that time everyone will be good and drunk! LOL

Happy Thanksgiving to - well anyone who reads my blog!
:-)